Mental Inertia 219 



ideas imbedded in our brains for long generations are 

 not easily uprooted. The inefficacy of war for settling 

 economic, political, and spiritual questions is evident; 

 but we persist in our time-worn ways, and continue 

 from tradition to use that method. 



In reality the civilized peoples today conduct wars 

 simply because their savage ancestors did so of old. 

 There is no other reason. It is a case of pure atavism, 

 a survival, a routine. From sheer spiritual laziness 

 they will not abandon their accustomed habits. Then 

 because the idea of carrying on war without any mo- 

 tive is revolting to them, they erect theory on theory, 

 system on system to justify it. ^ 



Here again the influence of the Great War may 

 be counted upon to aid in the task of overcoming 

 the inertia and indifference which have been among 

 the chief obstacles to a change of ideas in the past. 

 A wide-spread demand for the democratic control 

 of the foreign policies of the nations, witnesses 

 to the disappearance of the old idea that interna- 

 tional relations do not intimately concern the 

 welfare of the people, and had best be left to the 

 diplomatists and the "experts" in the philosophy 

 of force. Never have the conditions been so 

 favourable for a thorough discussion and a funda- 

 mental re-examination of the philosophy upon 

 which rests not only international relations, but 

 as we shall see in the next chapter, the entire 

 structure of society. 



The changes which are going on in the minds 



' J. Novikov, War and Its Alleged Benefits, pp. 76-77. 



